


Things I'll Never Say

by SunflowerWoman



Category: Naruto
Genre: Concern, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Romance, Friendship, Healing, One Shot, POV Haruno Sakura, Post-War, Romance, Romance and Fluff, Unrequited Love, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:41:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24044557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunflowerWoman/pseuds/SunflowerWoman
Summary: Sakura has grown close to Ino over the years and isn't quite sure how to process her own feelings. A short but sweet one shot where Sakura and Ino's friendship has the potential to cross into romantic territory. <3
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 8
Kudos: 83





	Things I'll Never Say

**Author's Note:**

> Cute one-shot that came to me on a whim. Influenced by the lovely song "She" by Dodie. Enjoy! <3

What many people didn’t know was that proper use of medical ninjutsu activated one of the shinobi’s five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, or hearing. For Sakura, taste was always the sense that activated. For some people, particularly non-shinobi whose chakra signatures were nonexistent or very low, the taste emerged was that of water. For others, it varied. Naruto’s chakra tasted like a fish cake, Sasuke’s was seaweed, and Kakashi’s was an eggplant for some odd reason. Normally Sakura did her best to brush off the different tastes she received when treating Konoha villagers’ injuries, but there was one person whose signature she couldn’t get rid of no matter how hard she tried.

She brushed her teeth and tongue vigorously, not leaving any crevice behind, gargled salt water until she felt like she had swallowed an ocean, kept coffee beans in her pockets to sniff throughout the day, but no dice. Nothing seemed to work. Thankfully the hospital was always bustling with patients, so it helped for her to keep herself buried under broken bones and paperwork.

Sakura was in the middle of stitching a child’s leg one breezy afternoon when a bolt of electricity ran up her spine and she caught a hint of peaches on her tongue. The mother of the child startled at Sakura’s sudden twitch, but the kunoichi assured the woman that she merely got a cold chill. But in truth, it was the opposite; her body grew warmer and her heart a little lighter at the prospect of seeing the person whose chakra signature she felt down the hall.

Once the boy’s stitches were finished, Sakura bade the family goodbye and made her way outside of the room. Her heartbeat quickened just a little as she approached the nurses’ station, as she had a feeling she knew what they were about to tell her.

“Yamanaka, Ino is here to see you Sakura-san. Room two.”

Smiling at the man who presented her with this information, Sakura turned and briskly walked down the corridor towards her next appointment. If her body didn’t feel so stiff, she would have run a hand through her tangled mess of hair to try and straighten her appearance. The hospital beds had been unkind to her over the past three days that she had been on call, and the dark circles under her eyes were as much proof as her disheveled hair. Oh well. There wasn’t much she could do about it now without causing Ino to wait, and the last thing she wanted was to hear Ino’s nagging voice about keeping her there all day when she should have been a VIP patient and treated first. 

It was a miracle that Sakura was still friends with the woman. But since they were older now, things had become more civil between them and they even went to tea once a week or two to trade gossip and talk about the boys on their respective shinobi squads. Ino usually asked Sakura about Sasuke, but the man was always gone on business so Sakura rarely had any updates on his condition or whereabouts, and whenever Sakura asked Naruto about it, he merely said that he wasn’t allowed to say. Top secret, blah blah blah. The usual nonsense.

But that’s what made Sakura’s visits with Ino so nice; Ino didn’t view Sakura as a hindrance or an obstacle. To Ino, Sakura was a rival and someone to look up to, someone to fight against and compete to be the best. It was refreshing to see someone’s eyes light up for _her_ , to be seen as more than just that loudmouth kunoichi from Sakura’s childhood. And slowly, over the years, Sakura noticed a true admiration for her former-enemy. She wasn’t quite sure what to call it. 

“Sakuraaaa-chan! You’ve been avoiding me for days now!” 

Ino thrust a pointed finger towards the woman once she had entered the room. “And clearly, you need me! Look at your hair! Those eyes! Honey, you need a spa date ASAY - as soon as _yesterday._ How many hours have you been here?”

Sakura ignored the jest in Ino’s voice and settled her with a glare. “That’s no way to talk to the person you sought out for treatment. What’re you here for?” Sakura glanced down at the chart beside Ino and frowned. “Have you been overdoing it again with the interrogations? I know you’re under a lot of pressure but you really shouldn’t--” Stopping herself, she sighed and pulled up the rolling stool so she could sit in front of the kunoichi. “Alright, hold still. I’ve got to run a few tests.”

After Ino’s vitals were checked and documented on her chart, Sakura held up a light to Ino’s eyes and instructed her to look left, then right, up, then down, before clicking the light off and notating more information on the chart. “When did the headaches start? And how long do they last?”

Ino pursed her lips in thought. “Like I told you at tea last week, they started a few months ago. But now that we’re conducting more interviews lately, they’ve become more frequent. I probably get one a few times a week, either during or after a session.”

Sighing, Sakura set the chart down on the bed beside Ino. “And the nosebleeds? Are those new?” She watched Ino’s lips curve downwards and knew they were. “Have you asked your clan members about the headaches? The bleeds? Perhaps one of them can help you if it’s related to your jutsu. I know with your father’s passing that you’ve been stepping up in the intelligence department, but if you’re not careful, you could be causing _irreparable_ damage that we can’t see yet. The mind is a powerful thing, but it’s also one of the most important. If you damage your brain…” Sakura took a breath, not realizing how quickly she had been talking. It must have been her nerves. “You just need to be careful,” she finished quietly, placing her hand on Ino’s knee and giving it a squeeze. “Who will I have tea with if not you?”

Ino’s frown lightened and she placed her hand over Sakura’s. “I know you’re worried,” she murmured. “But it’s the best thing for me right now. You have a gift in the medical field and have become an asset to Konoha - and me, I’m _supposed_ to be this awesome specialist and follow in my dad’s footsteps. But I don’t have him here to teach me anymore. All I’m left with are his notes and they’re so hard to read - you think the man would have invested in something other than an old journal if these notes were so sacred like Mom says.” She swallowed, trying to keep her voice level, but she knew that even a cat would be able to detect how shaky it was. “I just…” She heaved a sigh and brushed her blonde bangs out of her face. “I just want to be as confident as you are. You’ve already got Lady Tsunade’s blessing and the village adores you. Why can’t I be adored?”

_I adore you._

A knock on the door interrupted them and Sakura snatched her hand away from Ino’s before she involuntarily voiced her thoughts. “Yes?” she asked, as calmly as possible.

“Sakura, we’ve got a surgery for you when you’re finished here.”

As Sakura nodded to the nurse and watched them close the door, Ino stood from the patient bed and forced a laugh. The sound echoed in the room and made it sound even more hollow. “Oh, the crew forced me to come in here because I started bleeding. I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I’m sure I just need to take some vitamins or something.” Without looking at Sakura, she opened the door and took a step outside. “I’ll see you later! And stop avoiding me!”

Sakura rose to walk Ino out but by the time she entered the hallway, her friend had already disappeared.

\- o - 

It was late when Sakura crawled into bed two nights later. Thankfully it was her own and not another stiff, dirty bed at the hospital. She had had enough of those over the past month to last her a lifetime, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before their inevitable reunion. Some of the nurses and other medics joked that Sakura should rent out a room at the hospital instead of having her own apartment, and the insinuation that she never had any company to her own place stung. Of course, it was the truth - Sakura never had guests. She wouldn’t even know what to do with a guest other than offer them a free physical.

As she plopped down on her bed and peeled her clothes off, her eyelids grew heavy and before she could even cover herself with a blanket, she had passed out and was dead to the world. 

The creaking of her bedroom window awoke her many hours later. The moon shone brightly and cast a soft glow on Sakura’s features, and if she was thinking properly, she would have covered herself with something- _anything_ so that her attacker didn’t catch her in her skivvies. But alas, Sakura was sleep-deprived and a bit delirious, so when the intruder swung through the open window and Sakura tackled them to the ground, she was practically naked with a wild look in her eyes. Only when she saw the baby blue color she knew so well did she realize what was happening. “...Ino? What in god’s name are you doing here?”

Ino had on a flak jacket and shinobi pants rather than her usual purple ensemble, and the blue of her eyes was dulled to match her abnormally pale complexion. “Your house is closer than mine,” she breathed, not even trying to detangle herself from beneath Sakura’s limbs. Her breath tickled Sakura’s chest and she shivered, but Ino didn’t notice. “Plus, you ditched me for tea again. So we’re gonna do it here.” 

Sakura’s face flushed at Ino’s words but it was too dark for anyone but her to notice. “You can’t just barge in here--” she started, but an overwhelming scent of iron washed over her and she immediately placed her hands on either side of Ino’s face. “Ino,” she voiced softly, “let me check you out.” Without waiting for consent, Sakura leaned closer to Ino’s face and tried to see where the blood was coming from. A small amount had dried on Ino’s upper lip and a fleck of red crusted her ear. While Sakura was trained to remain calm under stress, this was _Ino_ , and although the woman could probably take care of herself, she clearly wasn’t, and that made Sakura’s blood simmer in a mixture of annoyance and concern. Gently, she removed herself from atop Ino and shifted the woman so that she was sitting upright with her back against the wall. The breeze from the open window lifted Ino’s blonde hair in soft tendrils and if Sakura wasn’t so worried in that moment, she would have thought her to be more beautiful than every other day. 

She was surprised when Ino didn’t even try to protest Sakura’s care, and even more surprised when she started to drift off on the hardwood floor. Grunting, Sakura hoisted the woman from the floor to her bed and tried to help her get comfortable. 

“Get it ooooofffff,” Ino whined as she tugged at the zipper of her flak jacket. “These things are unbeaaaarable, Sakuraaa. Be glad you don’t have to wear them all the time.” After a beat as Sakura started to remove her jacket, Ino whispered, “But I guess they aren’t that bad for someone flat chested.”

Sakura’s annoyance flared stronger but the tinkle of Ino’s soft laughter cooled her off instantly. She could never stay mad at this woman. As Ino sighed and wiggled underneath Sakura’s sheets, Sakura carefully found a place in the bed as far as she could get from Ino. They were both dirty from not having showered before bed, but neither of them seemed to care in that moment. Still, Sakura didn’t want Ino to get close enough to smell her lest she smell like the hospital - or worse, like death. 

They lay in the quiet darkness for a while before Ino rolled over and faced Sakura. Jade met blue and Ino’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “You’re a good friend, Sakura,” Ino drawled with a yawn. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Sakura felt her heart constricting in her chest and forced herself to breathe as evenly as possible. “I’d be lost without you,” she whispered, so softly that she didn’t think Ino would hear her. Ino’s eyes had closed but her hand reached out and grasped Sakura’s tightly, pulling it to her chest. Her breaths fell rhythmically and guided Sakura’s hand into a gentle rocking each time her chest expanded. “I mean it,” Ino muttered, her voice growing harder to hear. “You’re too good for them.”

It wasn’t clear which “them” Ino was referring to, but that was all she said before she drifted off. Sakura felt Ino’s hand slacken around her own and in response, she laced her fingers between Ino’s and held on tighter. The sensation brought back a memory of a dying shinobi from the Fourth Great Shinobi War that Sakura had held onto as his breath rattled to a stop. His grip had slackened in the same way Ino’s just had, and the reminder of life’s fragility was an unwelcome one. Panic gripped at Sakura’s throat as she struggled to breathe, her eyes roving her friend’s face and chest to watch for signs of life. Ino’s breaths continued steadily, but Sakura had a hard time fixing her own.

It took an hour or two for her heartbeat to return to normal, but once it did, the taste of peaches returned, along with apple juice this time. While she hadn’t performed any medical ninjutsu on Ino tonight, just her proximity was enough to elicit the phantom flavor. Sakura wanted to drink in the sensation endlessly, until she wasn’t sure where Ino ended and Sakura began. For a moment, she allowed herself to believe in her dream, become drunk on her feelings, and scoot closer to the woman occupying her bed. Only when her legs brushed against Ino's and their bodies warmed each other was she satisfied.

As Sakura kissed her beloved’s forehead, a smile played on the woman’s lips that went undetected.


End file.
